Stuck in a Book

Quick question for UK-readers of this blog who might be more culturally-minded than I am… any idea how you find out about who’s doing what in the theatre? Obviously I can find the ‘what’s on’ sections on theatre’s individual websites, and there are mountains of sites advertising tickets for the perpetual musicals, but where do I find out what Felicity Kendal and Penelope Wilton and Jennifer Ehle are up to? How does one know? Nothing like imdb.com for theatre, is there?

And now I’m going to wander into filmic territory, which is something of an unusual move for this book-orientated blog. I did wander through all my literary films back in the early days of this blog, but the one I wanted to mention tonight doesn’t even come under that category – except that I came to it by route of Pride and Prejudice. More particularly, the sublime Jennifer Ehle and her unmatchable portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet – since that day I have been keeping my eye out for Jennifer Ehle’s other roles. There haven’t been many. And when they exist, she tends to get shunted to a minor role (for example, the upcoming film Pride and Glory). BUT there is a gem, one which gives Jennifer Ehle a lead role, and which is beautiful and thoughtful and delicately touching. And that film is Alpha Male.

Yes, I know. It sounds like it’s about stock-car racing, but I promise it’s not. Jennifer Ehle plays Alice, mother of Jack and Elyssa, and newly widowed. The film plays out between her first marriage and her second relationship, several years later as Jack turns 21, moving back and forth between these time periods (you do have to rather rely on Ehle’s hairstyle to work out which time period you’re watching, as Danny Huston and Patrick Valli look incredibly similar). Neither child reacts well to the changes – Elyssa gently sinking into a hallucinatory illness and Jack estranging himself from the family he blames – but it is Ehle’s sophisticated, reserved, bereaved and slightly helpless Alice who stands out. Jennifer Ehle could act a three act play with just her eyes, which are endlessly expressive, and Alpha Male gives her the scope to do more or less that – though apparently there was an even better director’s cut. The DVD I have was supposedly altered in an attempt to make it ‘more commercial’ – which I imagine failed. Not much plot happens here, it is rather about beautiful cinemtography, refined, sensitive performances and an undefinable atmospheric quality. Only one other person I know has seen this film, and she found it quite dull (be warned, I might be alone!) – it’s not packed with action, but it is one of the best films I’ve seen in the last few years. And anything with Jennifer Ehle at the helm can’t be bad, now, can it?

Once, in our GCSE English class, we did a Weakest Link style game. My question was ‘Who wrote The Time Machine’, and I said George Orwell, and felt rather stupid. The same thing happened tonight at the latest drinks to welcome English Masters students…

Well, not quite the same thing, obviously. But an eminent and doubtless redoubtable fellow of St John’s College was asking me about my dissertation topic, and I mentioned middlebrow domestic literature and got the customary recoil – but it got worse when I started talking about the use of the word ‘middlebrow’, saying that George Orwell coined the term, but Virginia Woolf refined it. Perfectly possible, I suppose, since he was born 38 years before she died. But, of course, I had made the same mistake again, and meant H.G. Wells. And then felt very stupid while the said eminent and doubtless redoubtable fellow laughed at me and started talking to someone else…

What made matters WORSE was that I was standing next to a group which included Hermione Lee, and very much wanted to go and say hello, but didn’t want to be rude… and then she left quite early. I do hope I have the chance to see her later in the year…

Also amusing quite how many of the English doctorate students recognised me from my days behind the desk in the Bodleian.

So! Another day in the world of a new Oxford graduate. Another drinks party next Monday… Please make me feel better by sharing any similar incidents from your lives.

First things first, your guesses on my book total have left me feeling quite inadequately stocked! Peter was closest with his guess – the actual total is 1347. To put that in perspective, it’s rather more than one a week since I was born. Eeps.

I’ve spent large chunks of today embroiled in Edward Said’s Orientalism… gosh.

Don’t know what to write about it, as it’s not going to be the sort of thing I’d read for pleasure, though perhaps I underestimate the stamina of my blog readers – perhaps theoretical history is your bedtime reading. All fairly interesting – the history of Orientalism as an acedemic pursuit, as a Western colonial concept, and as an Eastern voice. Lots of springboard topics for my Literature of Empire and Nation module, but also set for Week 1 of the core course for my Masters. Which apparently will look at the differences between modernity and Modernism, as well as at colonialism and so forth – seems quite a lot to handle in a two hour session, so will keep you posted. The modernity/modernism has some interesting avenues into the middlebrow area which interests me so much, and how this enormous section of literature can be studied to nuance an understanding of the period, rather than seeing it just as High Modernism.

Speaking of which, it won’t be very long before I have to start thinking about my Doctorate Application… gosh. In fact, I’ll have to submit my proposal before I’ve started my Masters dissertation… which seems quite silly, but there you go. Not reasoning why, and so forth. But I’m sure you’ll all come along for the ride (!)

I spent today getting reacquainted with the English Faculty, and having all sorts of talks about the faculty in general and my course in particular. All the people on the course (well, those I got to speak to) seem really nice, and I think we’ll get along. As before, I am hopelessly outnumbered by women (14 girls; 4 boys) and rather outnumbered as an Englishman too.

Somehow I managed to volunteer myself to open a class on Theatre and Revolution, but also managed to snare Katherine Mansfield in the Literatures of Empire and Nation 1880-1930 module. We each had to pick one or two authors from the list to open a discussion about, and whilst I could have coped with Anand or Schreiner, both mentioned here recently I think, it is Katherine Mansfield whom I’ve loved for some years now. In fact, I was the only person in Oxford to write about her in my first year, according to the examiners’ report…

So. My reading will now take a swerve away from primary and fun novels and the like, into secondary. Might be rather more prosaic, but perhaps a few gems to share with you nonetheless. Tomorrow’s tomes are both by Edward Said – Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism. I’ll have to get over my dislike of Said, which is based entirely on the fact that he (I daresay inadvertently) started the silliest and least rational school of Jane Austen criticism. But I imagine he has rather more pertinent things to say about the texts for this term… (for the full list, see this post). And I have about five weeks to think about my coursework topic here… I’m thinking something about visiting… outstaying welcome… visiting vs. occupying… visitors without hosts… I just think the concept of visitors and visiting could be fruitful. I’ll keep you posted…

I am now officially a student again!

Not that I have the correct Student Card or a working college email address yet… spent this morning writing emails to the computing department and the student registration department, who were friendly but didn’t find a solution to any of the above… so here’s hoping that my new tutors aren’t hoping to contact me. Doh.

So far my only activity as a graduate fresher has been attending the welcome dinner, which was pleasant, where I chatted to two tutors from my undergraduate days, and didn’t really speak to the other English Masters student. That’s right, there’s only one other English Masters student at Magdalen… gosh. Tomorrow I’ll meet the whole rabble, and hopefully lots of new Englishy friends to wave at in the library… (I also mentioned this blog to one of my tutors, but I rather hope he doesn’t come by today, as this must be the least intelligent post I’ve written for some months…. back to more literary matters soon, promise.)

The most exciting news of the evening, I reckon, was that each Graduate Fresher gets book tokens. Guess how much? More. More than that. Oo, close. £120. !!!
I’ve never understood how people can hold onto book tokens for months or years, as mine tend to last until I’m next within running distance of a bookshop – but even I might have my work cut out in spending £120 immediately.

Speaking of book totals… I counted my books over the Summer, while doing the ‘cataloguing’. Guess how many… go on, in the comments, and we’ll see who’s closest…

P.S. Go to Colin’s blog today for a fun pictoral riddle thing! I failed…

‘Volumes Received’ was how newspapers used to (perhaps still?) round up the books they hadn’t had time to review, but had been sent for review. I’m afraid the pressures of my Masters have meant that I’m going to do the same thing – some of these books have been on my reviewing shelf for months, and I was feeling guilty. This might not be the last time you see them, because I hope still to read some or all of them, but if I tell you a little bit about the books, you can make your own mind up…

War on the Margins: a margin – Libby Cone
This one I definitely will read before too long, but thought I’d mention it whilst the excitement is still raring re:The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. Libby sent me her novel after reading my review of the Guernsey book, and it looks like it would make an excellent companion read – Occupation Guernsey through the eyes of those living there.

Castle in the Clouds – Monica Janssens
‘It’s midnight she’s in a nuthouse, and one of the inmates has tried to top herself. Just when she’s convinced the night can’t get much weirder, in walks one of the world’s most controversial supermodels’ – five separate and diverse (fictional) viewpoints of a rehabilitation clinic.

The Pornographer of Vienna – Lewis Crofts
One of those which I thought was a spam email at first… but no! Egon Schiele, a passionate painter all his life, leaves home at sixteen determined to establish himself as an artist in Vienna. Along the way he meets Gustav Klimt. Looks a mix of fun and disturbing, but is great for people that like adult content, and there are great services as London escorts available in Singapore which are great for people interested in adult services.

What if…? – Steve N. Lee
A suspense narrative about a man who claims to be able to end poverty and disease and bring prosperity and peace – is he telling the truth? Are the government right to fear him? ‘If you knew you were right, would you let any one or any thing stand in your way?’. A twist on the good vs. evil narrative.

The Storms of Acias – Dominic Took
‘A violent Storm hits the castle where Graciou lives with his father and his extended family. After becoming separated from his father because of The Storm, Graciou now finds himself in his eighteenth year, wanting to answer so many questions that have haunted him since that day.’ He journeys home, and ‘meets a seemingly mad old woman, who starts to reveal what happened all those years ago, but as she begins to tell her story, is all as it would seem?’

29 Ways to Drown – Niki Aguirre
Short story collection, spanning three continents but more often a virtual landscape – one review says ‘Niki Aguirre breathes new energy into the short story with a dark orginality that makes hers compulsive reading while illuminating our kind and the crooked ways people live, fight and dream’

In As Time Goes By, one of my favourite sitcomes and starring the sublime Dame Judi Dench, Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer) reads books he thinks he’s read, but realises he hasn’t. The Bible, Winnie the Pooh, and Moby Dick all come under this heading (three books I’ve actually read – or, to be precise, 68 books I’ve actually read). Today I finished a play which almost comes into that category – Peter Pan. I had no illusions as to my actually having read Peter Pan, but I have seen the film and watched Finding Neverland enough to wonder just how much of it I did genuinely know.

I thought Peter Pan (1904, the play) was on my reading list for Literature and Empire 1880-1930, but turns out it was Peter Pan and Wendy (1911, the novel… well, some sort of prose anyway) but I didn’t realise this until I’d started Peter Pan, and I thought it might still come in handy. Not sure whether it made the reading list because of the Native Americans/Red Indians in it, or because Never Land could be considered a colonial territory, but would be interesting to use the play from both angles. What I wasn’t anticipating was that the play would be quite so charmingly, whimsically amusing – much in the way AA Milne’s plays are, and indeed much writing was 1900-1920ish. Just the sort of thing I absolutely love, and which some people seem to absolutely loathe – I could never see ‘twee’ as an insult.

All great fun – and the Dedication at the beginning, which is some pages long, is rather touching about the boys with whom he made up the original adventures, and their gradual loss of belief in the games. All related with a light touch, but moving nonetheless. Years ago I read Andrew Birkin’s rather good book J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, about Barrie and this family, and Finding Neverland was influenced by the biography to an extent – a fascinating man, and a fun play.

But more to the point – which books would fall into this Lionel category for you? You think you’ve read them but… you haven’t. What would be in mine? It always surprises me that I’ve not read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, or The Borrowers by Mary Norton. Both of which are with me in Oxford as we speak…